It’s easy as fans to sit back and look at the standings from a high level and banter back and forth about who we feel will be left standing when the Playoffs are over in June. Why not? The Miami Heat are in First place in the East. They are followed closely by the Celtics and Magic. Where as in the Western Conference, The Spurs have a hold onto First in and are being chased by the Mavericks and Lakers. It’s very easy to speculate and make the assumption that one of these 6 teams will most likely end up being the NBA Champ this season. They are loaded with star quality players and have proven 30 games into the season that they all should be included in any speculative NBA Finals discussions.

The eventual NBA Champ may end up being one of these aforementioned teams, and the way this season is rolling along it looks like this is a sure bet. The one exception that looks maybe have something to say about this is the injury bug. As the season goes on, we are seeing injuries starting to take their tolls on teams’ chances at running away with a division or conference for that matter.

Mavericks - After going on a 12 game winning streak, the Mavericks appeared to be cruising right along in the West until their leader Dirk Nowitzki went down with a sprained right knee. He will be missing his 7th straight game on January 8th and the Mavs look like they are deeply missing their Captain. To make matters worse in Dallas, Caron Butler ruptured his Right Patella Tendon. The loss of these two players has been a major blow to the Mavericks. The Mavericks have lost 4 of their last 6 games since Nowitzki and Butler went down and are losing ground to the Spurs who show no signs of slowing down.

Heat – Although they have won 19 of their past 20 games, the Heat are feeling the hurt of the injury bug as well. Udonis Haslem went down with a leg injury at the beginning of this season and weakened the Heat by minimizing the depth they felt they were going to trot out onto the court before this season began. The loss of Haslem has left the Heat vulnerable from a rebounding perspective as Haslem was expected to be the rebounding machine for them as the “Big 3” was to focus on offense. As well, throw in the loss of Mike Miller for the first 29 games of the season, and it’s clear that the Heat are not sporting the team they had expected to. For now, the injuries that they have endured have had no effect on them as they are clearly winning, but it is important to make note of the injuries they currently have.

All other top tiered teams in the NBA are reasonably healthy with no major injuries to report that prohibit their star players from playing, but the injury bug clearly plays a major role in a teams chances of making the finals and succeeding in the NBA. As teams have only a 12-15 man roster, players in the NBA are far more important and vital to a teams success than in any other professional sports league and cannot be replaced as easily.

The Blazers have lost Greg Oden and apparently Brandon Roy for the season, Houston has lost Yao Ming, Philadelphia looks ready to put Andre Iguodola on the shelf with his Achilles tendon injury, The Bulls lost Joakim Noah for 3 months and The Celtics are playing without Kendrick Perkins. These players all represent major injuries on teams that would be far more competitive if these players hadn’t been hit by the injury bug meaning…

Injuries are and will always dictate who wins and who loses. If a team endures too many substantial injuries and at they happen at the wrong time they will stand little to no chance at succeeding.

3 Comments

Love The Mavericks, but its gettin tough to watch. First Caron Butler gets hurt for the year, then dirk is out for like what seemed eternity. Totally agree, the injuries are going to destroy a teams chances. Look how bad the Mavs played with out Dirk!